Princeton's Schreiber Building Legacy of His Own

Of all of the great family lineages in the sport of lacrosse, few have had the success that Tom Schreiber and his father Doug (Maryland 1973) have had. But as Princeton’s Tom Schreiber closes in on his third-straight All-America honor, it is safe to say he is building a legacy of his own.

The junior midfielder enters Saturday's Konica Minolta Big City Classic with 23 goals and 25 assists for a team-high 48 points for the Tigers (8-4, 3-2 Ivy League). He is on pace to become just the third midfielder to lead Princeton in scoring since 1990 (and it'd be his third year doing it), which would put him in company with Josh Sims (1999, 2000) and Scott Sowanick (2005, though Sowanick started the year playing attack).

Schreiber also has a chance to be the eighth Ivy League player to receive the McLaughlin Award as the best midfielder in the nation. His points total already exceeds at least three of the previous Ivy winners and Schreiber is guaranteed two more games — on Saturday against Cornell and in an Ivy League Tournament semifinal in Ithaca, N.Y., whose matchup will be determined this weekend.

Winning the McLaughlin Award wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise, however, as several coaches refer to Schreiber as the top midfielder in the nation.

North Carolina assistant Chris Feifs, whose team has played one of the three hardest schedules in Division I, calls Schreiber “the best midfielder we’ve faced all year.”

What makes Schreiber so dominant?

“Extremely versatile,” says Villanova coach Mike Corrado. “He can score the ball as well as anyone out there. He can also be a great passer. Tom is capable of playing both midfield and attack. He can line up on wings on faceoffs. He has the ability to beat you with speed and power.”

Another reason Schreiber succeeds is his ability to facilitate the offense. He is able to do all of this without being a ball hog, as he has the ball in his stick less than one-fifth of the time he’s on the field and is averaging 2.7 touches per possession in games charted.

As Princeton coach Chris Bates said recently, “But we say it often, that [Tom] doesn’t need to carry the load. There are times when he will, but more times than not, we’re trying to help him facilitate our offense and not feel like he’s got to be the offense.”

Schreiber leads a Tiger offense that is ranked second in the nation in offensive efficiency as they get set to enter their game against Cornell in the Big City Classic on Saturday. But what is most impressive is just how explosive this offense is when Schreiber is on the field.

When Schreiber is on the field, which is approximately 3/4 of the time on offense, he is one of the “top three most dangerous offensive players in the country,” as Feifs put it.

In Princeton’s televised games, two of which were against top 15 defenses in Syracuse and Johns Hopkins, Princeton scored on 53% of its possessions when Schreiber was on the field (the national scoring average is 33%), compared with 35% when he was on the bench.

Even though Schreiber is drawing a longstick defender on more than 93% of six-on-six possessions, he still is able to draw a slide at an impressive rate — once every four touches against man-to-man defenses.

“What impresses me most about Schreiber's game is his ability to create for himself against the best pole on the other team, his ability to ambidextrously shoot and feed with either hand on the run, and just his flat out speed in attacking the cage,” Feifs says.

Schreiber’s success on the field has him moving up the all-time list of scorers at Princeton, as he is on a 29-game point streak, which is the longest active streak of any midfielder in the nation.

His statistics as a midfielder rival Josh Sims’ 1999 and 2000 campaigns in which Sims had 43 points and 51, respectively. Sims won the McLaughlin Award in 1998 with 32 goals and five assists.

Schreiber’s points exceed Ivy League McLaughlin winners Sims (1998) and Cornell’s Joe Boulukos (37 points in 2006) and Max Seibald (38 points in 2009). He is closing in on reaching Bob Henrickson of Cornell, who had 56 points in 1978, and Sims, who had 51 in 2000.

When Schreiber’s collegiate career is over, the Schreiber lineage may rank among the best college lacrosse has ever seen. His father, Doug, was the player of the year in 1973 and was a two-time All-American at Maryland, a talented team with players like Kevin Boland and Mike Farrell, whose sons have also played collegiate lacrosse.

While Princeton is considered by Terry Foy and other prognosticators to be outside of the bubble for the NCAA Tournament right now, a win Saturday against Cornell (11-2, 5-0) would put the Tigers right back in the thick of things.

And another tournament appearance would add on to the legacy that Tigers’ Tom Schreiber is leaving at Princeton.

Brian would like to thank Inside Lacrosse’s Christian Swezey for assistance on the research. Brian can be contacted by email at briancoughlinil@gmail.com and Twitter @bcoughlin829. He has been taking a statistical look at the new rules and their effect on the game in a recurring feature called "Keeping Pace" all season. Here's the archive of his work.